将2017年描述为佐治亚州运输部（GDOT）的“巨大”一年将是轻描淡写。首先，该机构监督了价值48亿美元的532合同建筑投资组合；在其有史以来最大的高速公路项目，8.34亿美元的西北走廊快车车道上取得了重大进展；在亚特兰大和梅肯的主要互换重建方面破裂；并通过该机构首次应用加速桥结构的应用，将重点放在了桥梁升级上，这是该州西北角的56小时安装。

In addition, GDOT prepared to launch an $11-billion congestion relief program of megaprojects called the Major Mobility Investment Program (MMIP), one of several facets of a 2015 transportation funding measure that provides the agency with as much as $1 billion annually in dedicated project dollars.

Ordinarily, these achievements by themselves would make a compelling case for GDOT’s selection as ENR Southeast’s Owner of the Year. But they are overshadowed by an event that GDOT would have preferred not to have happened—the fire-induced collapse of an Interstate-85 bridge in downtown Atlanta. Nevertheless, the agency teamed up with Marietta-based contractor C.W. Matthews Contracting Co. to expedite a $16.6-million marathon emergency reconstruction effort, restoring the highway to traffic in just six weeks.

Russell McMurry, Georgia transportation commissioner, says that while the outcome was an impressive demonstration of GDOT’s capabilities, the level of internal and external collaboration is indicative of an agency culture founded on the principle of partnerships.

“We’ve always emphasized teamwork with our outside engineers and contractors because their success equals our success,” McMurry says. “We want to deliver safety and quality again and again—although we hope we don’t have to do it with something like I-85 again.”

When it comes to partnering, “that’s just who they are,” agrees Dan Garcia, president of C.W. Matthews, which has been involved with numerous GDOT projects over the years, including the current $178-million I-85 Express Lanes project in Atlanta.

Garcia notes that the agency’s stepped-up use of design-build and public-private partnerships have served to heighten the emphasis on collaboration. Rather than “wasting time with adversarial relationships,” Garcia says, GDOT encourages project teams to “bring ideas they can get behind. And you can see the results with the I-85 rebuild and elsewhere, with jobs completed on time and on budget.”

A fuel-tax increase implemented as part of the state’s 2015 Transportation Funding Act has given GDOT more opportunities to apply that collaborative spirit, in the process putting a major dent in the agency’s resurfacing and bridge maintenance backlog.

“We haven’t reached our new normal,” says Marc Mastronardi, GDOT director of construction, adding that having an average of four bids per contract offering has helped keep costs largely in check.

他说：“这也证明了承包商的能力。”“每个人都有很多工作，他们的人员配备正在上升，这是一个好的市场的标志。”

Mastronardi预计，随着机构将其重点转移到其他领域，随着铺路积压的删除，建筑量的进一步增长。

“We’ll need more bridge contractors in the state,” he says.

Contractors may also see GDOT apply early completion incentives such as those used to help expedite the I-85 rebuild, albeit on a case-by-case basis.

“我们正在看ing at other opportunities where the industry can show what it can bring to bear,” Mastronardi says. “But we’ll also need to manage our expectations of what they can do, and whether the need justifies the cost.”

GDOTalso appears eager to build on its nascent success in applications of alternative project delivery. Last year, its newly created public-private partnership division oversaw more than 70 design-build and design-build-finance projects, valued at more than $13 billion. They range from the consolidation of nearly 40 bridge replacement and modernization projects into nine separate contracts to the addition of express lanes to the Northwest Corridor’s I-75 and I-575 expressways. The joint venture of Archer Western and Hubbard Construction is on pace to complete the 29.3-mile project this summer.

建筑还开始了8亿美元的转型285/400项目，这是由美国Ferrovial Agroman，Louis Berger Group和Neel-Schaffer Inc.团队进行的四年设计建设努力。该项目将增加天桥和收藏家-distributor lanes to the notoriously congested interchange on Atlanta’s north perimeter.

毫不奇怪，MMIP MegaProjects也将广泛使用设计构新利18备用网址建。该计划将于今年夏天进行，C.W. Matthews的4.4亿美元（23英里）在亚特兰大东北地区扩大了23英里。预计第二阶段的采购和建设将在2024年进行。

GDOT创新交付办公室管理员Darryl Vanmeter表示，该机构在过去的两年中已经将11项目项目的管理结构放在了适当的位置，HNTB担任计划经理。

But while the agency is counting on alternative delivery to maximize project benefits, “it’s still up to us to set the table for the innovation we want to see from contractors,” VanMeter says. “It requires good scoping and estimating so we can understand on an annual basis what costs will be each year, then roll that up into the entire project.”

他补充说，这样做是为了努力，这意味着要利用各种观点 - 资金，建筑和法律等。

“We’re no longer going by just the design engineer’s estimate,” VanMeter says.

A statewide strategy

Though metropolitan Atlanta and its notorious traffic issues are understandably a major focus for GDOT, the state’s large agribusiness economy demands that the agency give equal attention to its vast rural areas. The presence of major port operations in Savannah and Brunswick is a similarly critical consideration, justifying the next two MMIP projects—reconstruction of the I-16/I-95 interchange and a separate widening program for I-16. Both jobs have shortlisted their design-build teams with an eye toward getting work underway in 2019.

Another MMIP project, slated for the mid-2020s, will create 77 miles of dedicated truck lanes on I-75 north of Macon. John Hibbard, the agency’s director of operations, expects the new lanes to incorporate the now-emerging connective vehicle technology that will allow trucks to operate more efficiently.

Hibbard补充说，随着连接和自动驾驶汽车领域发生的许多发展，“我们在技术评估方面正在投放广泛的网”。

例如，到明年，该机构将在亚特兰大大都会（Metropolitan Atlanta）升级50个信号，以向测试车提供基本信息，例如哪个方向是绿色的，以及在灯光变化之前的秒数。试点计划将扩展到包括有关几个主要高速公路的拥塞报告。

And thanks to the 2015 financing act, Hibbard adds, “We have more money for pavement markings and striping roads—features that are fundamental to connected and autonomous vehicle operation but [that also] will have an immediate benefit to all motorists.”

与大多数参与基础设施构建和维护的其他人一样，劳动力问题是未来关注点的列表。麦克默里说：“我们是一个比以往任何时候都小的代理机构，但是我们负责的车道迈尔斯和桥梁的数量从未如此大。技术只能做很多事情，这就是为什么我们正在帮助我们的学校使更多的学生接触到我们行业的职业。”

Mastronardi points to the I-85 rebuild as evidence for optimism about the next generation of industry leaders.

他说：“我们年轻的员工面对这一挑战的方式毫无疑问，当他们承担自己的领导责任时，他们和他们的同龄人将同样具有创新性和出色的态度。”，“孩子们还好。”